Africa-Press – Zambia. The government has sent a team of Officers to Kitwe to assess the gutted Chisokone Market with a view to rebuild and help all the affected marketeers.
The team of officers from the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit have been dispatched to Kitwe’s Chisokone Market where goods were gutted in an inferno this morning.
And DMMU National Coordinator, Chanda Kabwe says his officers will work with the District Disaster Management Committee, ZESCO, the Market Committee at Chisokone Market and the Ministry of Local Government to establish the impact of the inferno that gutted the market this morning.
Mr Kabwe said all the affected traders in Chisokone Market will be helped by the government to ensure they get back on their feet with their businesses.
“Government will work with the market committee at Chisokone to establish what has been lost in the fire and the number of traders who have been affected” he said.
Mr. Kabwe has assured that the government will not neglect the affected traders but will provide the necessary interventions once the assessment of the gutted market by the DMMU and key stakeholders is done.
He has since appealed to the marketeers across the country to consider insuring their shops and stalls against hazards such as fires so that they can be compensated when they suffer such losses, especially for markets such as Chisokone Market that has a record of catching fires.
Mr. Kabwe has commended the fire brigade under the Ministry of Local Government for the quick response and for salvaging some of the goods that were caught up in the fire. He said the law enforcement agency will however investigate the cause of the fire in the market in order to avoid future incidences.
Preliminary information indicates that over 15 shops have been burnt to ashes while a few shops have had part of their structure gutted with goods salvaged after the fire brigade quenched the inferno.
This is contained in a statement made available to ZANIS by Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit DMMU Senior Communications OfficerMathews Musukwa in Lusaka today.
